Japan Expanding Floating Wind Farm Amid Intensifying Global Race
Chisaki Watanabe
August 25, 2016
Pilot project off Fukushima is currently world’s largest
Japan has 500 gigawatts of potential floating wind capacity
Tugboats pull a floating wind turbine from off the coast of Sumoto Port on July 2.
Japan’s ambition to lead in the development of floating wind turbines is facing stiff competition
from rivals in Europe -- most notably from France -- as companies and governments press to lower
costs and prove the technology can rival other sources of clean energy.
At the center of Japan’s effort is a demonstration project off the coast of Fukushima north of
Tokyo. The largest floating turbine project of its kind at the moment consists of a 2-megawatt
turbine, a 7-megawatt turbine, a substation, and a 5-megawatt model, which was towed into place
last month and is expected to begin generating power soon.
The project, funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is being developed by
a 10-member consortium including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. One of the
goals is to show whether floating offshore wind can be commercially viable.
“Japan is completely behind Europe” in the development of wind turbines, said Takafumi
Shigemura, who’s overseeing the project for Marubeni Corp., the Japanese trading company that
leads the consortium. “But we are ahead in making floaters to build up our expertise, and there are
many docks for shipbuilding available. So we have an advantage.”
The Fukushima project’s 5-megawatt turbine, the last of the turbines to be installed, is made by
Hitachi. The turbine has been moored and testing will begin as early as next month before it
becomes fully operational later this year.
Seaborne Construction
Given Japan’s relative lack of expertise in seaborne construction compared with European rivals
experienced in offshore oil and gas development, costs tend to be high, said Tsukasa Sato, a deputy
director at the new and renewable energy division for the trade and industry ministry. “The task is
to study how to reduce cost,” Sato said.
That’s not easy for a project that’s testing various technologies for the first time. The
7-megawatt turbine supplied by Mitsubishi Heavy, which deploys a hydraulic drive train instead of
mechanical gears, is expected to restart in January after tests led to extra construction work, the
company said by e-mail.
Globally, investment in floating offshore wind was a fraction of that for turbines fixed to the
bottom of the sea. The floating offshore market is valued at $490 million to date, including both
demonstration projects and a commercial venture off the coast of Scotland that’s yet to produce
power. That compares with $113.4 billion invested in traditional offshore wind farms with concrete
foundations on the bottom of the seabed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy
Finance.
Floating offshore wind is likely to remain a bit player. By 2020, $530 million more is expected
to be funneled into floating offshore globally, while $50 billion will be added to fixed-bottom,
according to BNEF.
Japan’s trade and industry ministry has so far set aside 50 billion yen ($499 million) for the
Fukushima project, which is now in its fifth year.
Though costly, the payoff for Japan may be great. The resource-poor nation has 500 gigawatts
of potential floating wind capacity, according to a June 2015 report by Carbon Trust, an
environmental group.
Japan first plied the waters of offshore floating wind off Nagasaki in southwestern Japan where
a pilot project saw the installation of a 2-megawatt turbine in October 2013.
In Europe, two demonstration projects are underway with the 2-megawatt Hywind project 10
kilometers off the southwest coast of Norway and Portugal’s 2-megawatt WindFloat program.
France Emerging
A few more projects are soon expected to come online that will exceed Fukushima’s 14
megawatts. Scotland’s 30-megawatt Hywind project, now under construction, has secured financing
and is expected to go online in 2017, according to Tom Harries, a wind analyst for Bloomberg New
Energy Finance. A 25-megawatt project in Portugal is in the process of securing backing, and may
go online around 2018.
Meanwhile, France has the potential to be a big player. The country has awarded financial
support to two floating projects, each with 24 megawatts of capacity which are to be commissioned
by 2020, according to Harries.
“Besides a few demonstration turbines, Japan is yet to show any clear support for floating wind
on a larger scale,” Harries said. “To grow and sustain a floating wind industry, Japan will have to
demonstrate more transparency on support for future projects and on a longer time horizon,” he said,
adding that France is planning another auction for floating projects.
In Japan, operators of the Fukushima project have said installation of the first 2-megawatt
turbine cost about 2 million yen a kilowatt. Even with offshore wind operators winning more
favorable tariffs compared with onshore projects, costs must still come down to at least 500,000 yen
a kilowatt, Marubeni’s Shigemura said.
Getting permission to develop offshore wind is also a hurdle, with local fishermen and others
potentially claiming a say in the matter, Shigemura said.
“For developers, this poses a risk,” he said.
Fukushima Findings
Below are some of the findings from the Fukushima demonstration project so far:
The world’s first floating substation, set up to increase transmission efficiency, has been
trouble-free since its installation in 2013, said Takeshi Ishihara, a professor at the University of
Tokyo who has been leading the project.
A V-shaped design has been shown to reduce the number of components needed for the floating
structure on which a turbine is installed, allowing for a 40 percent reduction in cost a megawatt,
according to Ishihara.
A winch fixed to the floater to pull up mooring chains eliminates the need to deploy a crane,
boosting work efficiency and safety, according to the professor.
